U.S. Open at Torrey more than a dream

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson step up to the 18th tee on Torrey Pines' South Course. They are tied for the lead. A birdie wins the championship.

Not the Buick Invitational championship.

The U.S. Open championship.

That's the dream. That one day Torrey Pines will be mentioned in the same breath with Winged Foot and Baltusrol and Shinnecock Hills and Pebble Beach as a site for our country's most prestigious golf championship.

It is still very much a fantasy, because the reality is that Torrey Pines is a well-worn jewel in need of much sanding and polish.

A month ago, the very thought of our municipal course hosting a major championship would have been laughable. The greens are so worn out they have fallen below the PGA Tour's standards for the Buick Invitational. Most of the bunkers are mere decorations, not hazards, to the professional player.

Then the Century Club announced its intent to acquire $3 million in private donations, save the taxpayers a load of cash, and pay architect Rees Jones, the so-called "Open Doctor," to perform an immediate face-lift.

Jones, who has remodeled six Open courses, will begin work soon after the last putt falls at the Junior World Championships on July 20 and be finished well before the Buick Invitational in February.

The reviews will come from the players at the Buick, and the United States Golf Association will have its ear to the ground.

"Our main purpose in renovating the course is not to get the U.S. Open," Century Club executive director Tom Wilson said yesterday. "We want to improve the course for our tournament. But if something happens down the road ... if the golf course renovations done by Rees Jones merit an investigation by the USGA to host the U.S. Open or another organization's major championship, then that would be great for San Diego and great for Torrey Pines."

Getting the U.S. Open is a tricky process. This isn't the NFL or IOC. You don't campaign; you quietly lobby. The USGA shuns flashy suitors. It prefers candlelit dinners to rock concerts. It doesn't kiss on the first date.

In fact, the ad-hoc committee that eventually won this year's U.S. Open for Southern Hills didn't know with any certainty it had done so until the night before the announcement at the 1996 Open at Oakland Hills.

So Torrey Pines and the Century Club must move along as if nothing will happen, all the while hoping they might be picked out of the crowd. At the soonest, Torrey might get to dance in 2008.

There are many reasons to believe that could happen.

We have North America's best weather in June. We are a city rich in amateur and professional golf tradition. The county is the worldwide hub of the golf manufacturing business.

That only scratches the surface.

-- The USGA was thrilled to have nine extra holes at Southern Hills for hospitality and merchandise villages; Torrey Pines has the entire North Course.

-- Southern Hills is surrounded by a residential neighborhood and budget hotels; Torrey Pines will have three luxury hotels within walking distance, and dozens more minutes away.

-- Southern Hills' landmark was Tulsa's puny skyline; Torrey Pines has Big Blue out there beyond the sandstone cliffs. The television ratings for the Buick Invitational are boffo every year because America loves those blimp shots of the coastline.

The USGA also desperately needs another West Coast venue. For a national championship, the Open hasn't been very national. In the last 30 years, only seven tournaments have been staged west of the Mississippi, including four at Pebble Beach. The Southwest hasn't hosted an Open since Ben Hogan's victory at Riviera in '48.

Venerable Riviera would seem to be Torrey Pines' prime competition, but it suffered attendance disasters in the '95 PGA Championship and '98 Senior Open, and the venue is a logistical nightmare.

Torrey has one more thing going for it, and it might be the most telling attribute of all. It is a municipal, public golf course.

In the eyes of many, the USGA took a huge step forward when it awarded the 2002 Open to the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y. Pebble Beach and Pinehurst No. 2 are the only other public courses in Open history, and only the wealthy can afford them.

David Fay, the executive director of the USGA who pressed hard for Bethpage's Open berth, has called the Long Island course "the quintessential public golf facility." It is a lot like Torrey. Its dawn patrol also lines up in the wee hours to secure tee times on a weekday for $31.

Too, Bethpage was frayed around the edges, until a $2.7 million USGA grant allowed Jones to get his hands on it. Now, it ranks 46th on Golf Digest's list of "America's 100 Greatest Courses."

There already is a tremendous positive buzz about Bethpage '02, and there should be. The Open is the people's championship. This year, more than 8,000 golfers attempted to qualify for it. Why should it be so frequently played on private courses accessible to almost no one?

It is a question the USGA has no doubt been asking itself. And if Jones gets it right, the folks at Torrey Pines will have a reason to dream.